January Jaunts

Here I sit, a repentant blogger. Alas, this year I have blogged twice - the first time was a recap of LAST year, the second was focused on my hair. Hmm. This blog has many purposes, one of which was to share with extended family and friends pictures and goings on. In that respect I have failed. Miserably. But, here I sit, a repentant blogger. So, should we start with January?


Okay, wow. In reviewing pictures of January, it seems like quite a lot happened. Shall we get to it, then?

First, we had a few deaths in the family. Our surprisingly cute Chinese Water Dragon died. (And he actually was pretty cute - I would let him perch on my shoulder fairly often, and I'm not what you would consider a pet lover.) Erik's African dwarf frog died too. At least he was memorialized well ...

 

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It snowed a lot during January, and as a family with four busy boys, it felt like we were out in it. A lot. I hate hanging out in the cold, but if I don't, who will take the pictures? And thankfully my hubby is happy to dive into the snow with the kids, so my duties are ONLY as camera woman. And at least it justifies a huge mug of cocoa. Not that I necessarily NEED justification for a huge mug of cocoa ...

 

 In January I ran away, by myself, TWICE. I'm sorry, couldn't you understand that? I'll repeat myself, just in case you missed it. I flew on a plane BY MYSELF. For several DAYS. TWICE. And it was glorious. My first trip was to see my baby brother get married to an amazing woman. They were adorable! He sang to her! I got to play with my brothers and marvelous sister in law! I got to play Aunt instead of Mom and it was FUN!

My second trip was to visit my very favorite fabulous friend. Did I mention I was BY MYSELF? Yep, I thought I did. We spent the weekend eating yummy things and generally having fun, and again I got to play Aunt to her kids instead of Mom to my own. (I love being a Mom, but I'm of the strong opinion that occasionally missing your kids is healthy.) Not to be remiss in our duties, my f.f.f. (favorite fabulous friend) and I even taste tested chocolate from different countries around the world. Unfortunately, I can't remember which country won, which means ... well ... I guess we'll just have to do it again. Only in the name of science, of course.

 And lastly, in January we had some fun friends come visit us, and they brought us the biggest Whoopie Pie I've ever seen. And we ate it. All.

 So there you go, January. Bored yet? Well, just you wait. I have 10 more months to get through before I'm caught up ...